Val clutched at her arm, and Peyton realized her hands were bound together with rope. “Peyton, I’m so sorry,” Val said in a shaky voice. “I never meant for any of this to happen.”
Peyton stumbled as she was pushed through the back door of the rotting old house. The stench of mold and a dead animal suffused her and made bile rise to her throat.
“In the bedroom,” Joanna ordered. “The corner.”
Peyton couldn’t hide the shock from her tone. “Why are you doing this, Jo? We were friends.”
A bitter laugh rumbled from Joanna. “All you had to do was leave things alone,” Joanna snapped. “Keep quiet. Not talk to the police.”
“I did keep quiet.” Anger bubbled inside Peyton. “Until someone hurt Mama.” She glared at Joanna in shocked disbelief. “You? You caused the gas leak. And you drugged Mama. I left you with her because I trusted you, and she hasn’t woken up because you drugged her.”
“That was your fault,” Joanna said. “You had to get chummy with that federal agent.”
“I wasn’t chummy,” Peyton said. “I was just trying to protect my mother.” She glanced at her sister who was shivering uncontrollably. Sweat beaded her skin and her eyes looked wild, glassy.
Was she high now? In need of a fix?
She rubbed her sister’s arm. “Val, how did you find out what happened?”
“The pills. I couldn’t help it, Peyton. I was desperate and I found this pill mill and at first it was all fine. The doc wrote me scripts, and I was okay. Then it got to where I couldn’t pay, and they cut me off.” Her voice slurred. “They did the same thing to Gloria. She didn’t want her husband to find out she was an addict.”
Peyton’s mind raced as she tried to follow Val’s explanation. “You knew Gloria Inman?”
“We met at the clinic. But when we couldn’t pay, they told us not to come back. Gloria was irate. Said she’d expose them if they didn’t give us what we needed.”
Joanna waved the gun around. “We couldn’t let her do that. It would have ruined everything.”
Rage at Joanna heated Peyton’s blood. “So, you killed Gloria. You shot her up with morphine and she OD’d. That’s what sent her into cardiac arrest.”
“Yeah, but her husband came in and had to call an ambulance,” Joanna said in a low whisper.
A deep feeling of betrayal cut through Peyton. “At the hospital, you gave her more morphine.”
“I couldn’t let her wake up and point the finger at me.”
“So, you framed me.” Peyton’s voice shook with anger. “You used my code to check out morphine and a second epi injection to make it look like I screwed up. You made Dr. Butler believe it was my fault.”
Joanna gave a sardonic laugh. “He didn’t want to believe it. Not that the great Nurse Weiss could make a mistake. That’s why he told you not to say anything. He wanted to protect you.”
“He was innocent in all this,” Peyton said. But she’d doubted him.
She’d never doubted Joanna though. That was her mistake. She’d trusted the wrong person.
And now her entire family was going to die because of it.
* * *
LIAM’S PHONE BUZZED as Jacob drove them back toward Whistler. Deputy Rowan.
He connected. “Something wrong, Deputy?”
“I’m supposed to be keeping an eye out for Peyton as well as her mother, right?”
“Absolutely. What’s wrong?”
“Well, Peyton came out of the room and said she was going to the ladies’ room, but that was half an hour ago and she hasn’t returned.”
Liam clenched the phone tighter. “Did you check the ladies’ room?”
“Yeah, I knocked and called out, then asked one of the other nurses to look inside, but she wasn’t there. I tried calling her phone, too, but she’s not answering.”
The hair on the back of Liam’s neck bristled. Maybe she’d gone to the cafeteria for a bite to eat. Or to the chapel to pray. “Ask the nurse to page her over the intercom. If she doesn’t show, let me know. I’ll wait while you do.”
He heard the deputy yell out to the nurse, then he returned. “That nurse wants to talk to you. Said she has the results of the drug screening you asked for.”
“Put her on the phone.”
She identified herself immediately. “The doctor reviewed the results of the screening, and something is definitely off. Mrs. Weiss was given heavy doses of morphine. But we did not have her scheduled for morphine.”
Liam’s breath rasped out. They had vetted every caregiver who was allowed to be in the room